Intel wants to make autonomous driving a reality; announces $250 million investment

To make fully autonomous driving a reality Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced their plans to invest more than $250 million of additional new investments over the next two years.

Krzanich was delivering his keynote address at the LA Auto Show’s AutoMobility conference, which also highlighted how critical the automotive market has become for the company.

These investments will drive the development of technologies that push the boundaries on next-generation connectivity, communication, context awareness, deep learning, security, safety and more. Drilling down into the areas that will be fueled by the fresh investments, Krzanich highlighted technologies that will drive global Internet of Things (IoT) innovation in transportation; areas where technology can directly mitigate risks while improving safety, mobility, and efficiency at a reduced cost; and companies that harness the value of the data to improve reliability of automated driving systems.

One of the trends Krzanich sees as most disruptive to almost every industry is the enormous flood of data driven by the proliferation of smart, connected devices.

“Every autonomous car will generate the data equivalent of almost 3,000 people. Extrapolate this further and think about how many cars are on the road. Let’s estimate just 1 million autonomous cars worldwide – that means automated driving will be representative of the data of 3 billion people,” he wrote on a blogpost (https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/krzanich-the-future-of-automated-driving/).

Taking the analogy of oil, Krzanich wrote that the way oil has transformed the world over the last century, data is poised to transform our world for the next hundred years – and beyond.

Addressing a large crowd of automotive and technology industry representatives, Krzanich talked about how the automotive industry is on the cusp of a major transformation, demanding unprecedented levels of computing, intelligence and connectivity. With the variety of sensors, sonar, LIDAR and cameras that will come embedded in autonomous cars, he highlighted the need for the industry to be prepared for the data deluge with over 4,000 GB of data coming from a single car each day.

The announcement is part of Intel’s ongoing work with automakers and system suppliers to help integrate advanced technologies into cars.

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